National Review on Georgia Voter ID case

More at National Review here.   “In the end, as this decision by the Georgia Supreme Court and all of the decisions by other courts show, the Bush administration’s legal judgment was correct. To paraphrase former Reagan Labor Department secretary Ray Donovan, which office do I go to get my reputation back (along with an apology)?”

Full Georgia Voter ID opinion

Linked is the full opinion written by Justice Hugh Thompson.  A defeat for Common Cause and the NAACP.  And so ends years of nasty contentious fighting.  All the arguments and posturing became as simple as this –  from the opinion:


“Nor do we find the photo ID requirement to be an impermissible qualification on voting. The 2006 Act does not deprive any Georgia voter from casting a ballot in any election. A registered voter who does not possess a photo ID and who desires to vote in person can obtain a free photo ID at one or more locations in the county of his or her residence.”

Here is Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes complaining about the law upheld today and other government issued photo identification laws and their “intersection with race” and affect on “people who traditionally face barriers to the polls.”  She concludes, “that’s what I’d call the denial of the right to vote.”